This webcast offers a beginner’s introduction to building your own applications with the Microsoft Kinect. It covers everything you need to know to understand how the Kinect works and how it enables new forms of interaction.

In this webcast, Greg Borenstein, author of Making Things See, will introduce you to:

The history of the Kinect and the principles behind how it works as a depth camera and how it can track users’ skeletons

Survey the landscape of tools, drivers, and frameworks that are available for working with the Kinect and doing skeleton tracking based on its data

Understand the calibration process, how it works, and why and when it’s necessary

Learn how to access user joint positions in 3D

Explore tools for using joint position and relative distance in user interfaces and creative tools

Discover the possibilities, limitations, and opportunities in this kind of interaction